From a tiny sliver of my room, I have a view of the far off, dusty cordillera -- the famous Andes mountains. This is it. The world ends here, or at least that's how the Chileans view it. Es una tierra casi como isla. The towering mountain range blocks the east and the west drops into an enormous ocean. To the south, there is nothing but Antarctica. Accordingly, there is a palpable sense of pride in the sluggish summer air.

Since my arrival on Wednesday morning, I have spent the last four days in Olmue, a village near Valparaiso, in the mountain range above the coast. We stayed in a place called ''Paraiso,'' which means paradise. Let's be honest: it truly was. I lived in a little cabaña wrapped in honeysuckle, with a path that connected to the pool and grape encrusted arbor. After being properly schooled in Chilean customs and swear words (plus an excursion to a nearby vineyard where we rode a tractor to the fields and frolicked/ate our way through acres of ripe grapes), I was ready to venture to Santiago de Chile.

And now, here I am. I start orientation for my three respective universities (U. de Chile, Catolica and Diego Portales) this Tuesday, but being a foreigner (and therefore slower), I have three weeks to choose classes. Plus, I'm not actually responsible for any work during the intial shopping period. Being a gringa actually does provide a few advantages... This all adds up to a ridiculous amount of time to explore, pasarme muy bien and become fluent in spanish.

My little apartamento is so cute. I have a computer, a phone, a cd player and blue plaid bedspread and other than the size, I really can't say it looks much different from any other room, except that I can see the Andes when I lay down in my bed. I also have nto yet mentioned the small bundle of joy that rules my house: la Pepa. She is a mini white poodle about the size of a 1980s cell phone. She loves me, which I don't really understand, but we like to hang out and she especially likes to leap into my lap when I'm trying to spread fried eggs on my stacks of white bread during meal time. It's all pretty special. This is only my second day, but I've certainly managed to have a few special incidents. For example, when I went to take a shower this morning, I was first taken aback by the size of the thing. It's not much wider than an airplane seat and not a whole lot longer. But I thought to myself, ''no biggie.'' It would have been fine if not for the non functional shower head. I yanked and slammed that little knob on the spout every which way, but try as I might, only a small stream of water would drizzle from the spout that fills the tub. I spent the better part of a half hour hunched beneath the trickle (read:laying on the floor) to wash my hair and the rest of myself. Yum. Anyway, the shower man is coming any time now, which probably means tomorrow, so I should be in better shape relatively soon.

And now, it's time for more chilean life. It is hard to be sad when everyone is so loving, of which I am very thankful. Besos a todos! And finally, I would like to leave you with a small sample of Chilean philosophy: ''Hacemos lo que manda el corazon, no la cabeza.'' Y asi es.